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Crazycanuck's most excellent 200km adventure(long post)
Hey kids,I have had some time to blob out & think about yesterday's 200km adventure.:) Sorry this is a long post :eek:
Before i babble on, just a couple of thank you's
To the Californiah long distance ladies-Thank you for your information, training ideas & giving me the hankering for long distance riding.(more of that later) Now I know i'm not the only nutcase out there!
LBTC-:) :) :) Thank you for the butterflies-I hardly noticed the hills & the wind. Thank you again for your support kiddo.
BM03-Thank you for not thinking i'm nuts & your many many supportive emails.
RM-Mmmm cliff bloks :) Teigyr-mmm..fig newtons...
Righty o..My first 200km came down to some hills, blue skies, crappy sealed roads & two wonderful riding partners. I'd never met any of the 9 gents before and was welcomed with gracioussmiles & support. I was a bit nervous but I somehow knew i was in good company. Ian was happy to see me off & he was probably more excited than we were:rolleyes: but he was there as support :)
It was a bit nippy(about 5c) when we headed off but i didn't really notice. We started out of Toodyay and it was pretty much undulating from there. I guess i didn't notice the hills as I started chatting with Bjorn and found out about 4 of the guys on the ride had qualified for PBP so this was just a training ride for them. Right
It was early and knew in my mind i had to pace myself. I looked at my ETA early on and saw it was 6pm & felt that was a good time to finish so i just kept on moving. I was with Bjorn and some others until i needed to find a tree. :o There isn't alot of dense bush in the WA countryside so i had to pick the right bunch of trees. Noone was around so i really only mooned a few sheep in a paddock accross the road. baaaaa..
I lost the main bunch but didn't try and race to catch up as it wasn;'t in my day plan. Perhaps it was panic about hindsight if i didn't finish and realizing i'd sped up when i shouldn't have. Anywho, there were two wonderful gents behind me that i'd spend the rest of the day with. Rod (the organizer) and Klaus(the cool older german dude) who were either right behind me, right beside me or way behind. I think i rode on my own for alot of the time but i didn't mind as i knew I wasn't alone and had lots of butterflies with me :)
When you look at the photos, you'll probably ask yourself why i didn't have a route sheet in front of me. Would you believe i had a hankering of where i was going since i'd driven the route a while back? I also felt i'd spend too much time concentrating on the distance rather than riding. Don't worry, the route sheet was in my pocket :)
I spent a lot of time thinking about my nutrition plan i'd arranged. At no time during the ride did i feel hungry or thirsty nor did i panic about how much i was taking in each hour. I did feel a bit sloshy at one time but the feeling quickly subsided. So cliff bloks, endura bars, raisins & fig newtons all keep me happy.
Our first control was at 82km in Meckering where i reapplied some body glide & Neat 3B action cream. We made it there by 1140am & considering about 15km of that was uphill, I think it was good timing.I didn''t want to spend too much time there but made time for the loo (glad i'm a chickie), a potato and fill up the water bottles & grab my next ziplock bag with necessary food items. I kept alot of my food in my bra as i have a hard time reaching my pockets and thought it seemed like an ok place to keep it.
The afternoon part of the ride was full of excitement. First, whoever maintains the roads in rural WA needs a good slap. URGH :mad: The roads are full of small potholes & cracks. For about 20km+we rode on rock chip sealed roads. I don't know if you have these where you live but OMG talk about hard on the hands and wrists. OW.OW.OW.
There's no shoulder on most of the roads so it's ride it & enjoy the experience :eek: At one point, no clue if telstra was installing a new line but there were two small ditches in the middle of the road. OW. Good thing i noticed & stood up to alieviate some of the shock. OW.
The good thing about this ride is we hardly saw anyone in most of the countryside. That would be most of the afternoon :rolleyes: The drivers that did come along were really good about giving us a lot of room. That and I don't think they see cyclists very often out near Meckering. hee hee..Beautiful countryside though!That took us to York for our last control. We were making good time arranged for Ian to meet us at a certain point so i could attach the better light to my bike.
I guess the last 60+km were the most exciting for the funniest of things I saw. Somewhere just outside of York there's a skydiving centre. Riding along and the next thing I saw were parachutes coming down into a field beside me. I rode along hoping they didn't miss the field..:eek: NExt thing i noticed was a plane fly along very very close above my head. Hahahah..It reminded me of the movie North By Northwest in a way. They need to put a "Low Flying Aircraft" sign up. Can't stop giggling.
Anywho, attached the big light to my bike & had 20km to go. I was itching to finish by about 6pm and knew we'd be riding in the dark for about 15km on the main highway uphill. Good thing those butterflies hadn't left me and were keeping me warmish. Remember to put something warm on before it gets dark :o and take your sunglasses off!
The last 5km's became a who cares about speed, drinking or whatever just get me back to toodyay. Made it back without getting hit by cars, roos or running over anything. Ahhhhh..200km!
Rod & Klaus congratulated me & gave me a celebratory hug. The other guys had all finished and left but what mattered was that i finished. :D :) 8hrs 50min of riding & finished at 6:10pm i think!
Thanks! Esp if you read the post this far!
C
